REFLECTIONS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 29 October 1917, Page 4

REFLECTIONS.

ON WAR AND CONSCIENCE

LIMERICK AND RIGA

THE FLOWERS OF THE FOREST.

(By "John Doe.")

The war has solved a certain number of questions for us, but it has opened a larger number and left a considerable body of matters in a state of indecision. What, for instance, is conscience? The conscientious objector to military service has had and is still having a most unenviable experience. He is the butt of scorn, of cynicism, of vituperation in every form. Cowardice is the least charge brought against him; and in England at any rate, and to some extent in this country, public opinion and treatment of him is such that, far from cowardice, it would seem to demand high moral courage nowadays to avow oneself a conscientious objector.

The town of Riga is figuring only too prominently in the papers at present. Its name reminds one of its association with a well-known Limerick, which has, as far as I know, the literary distinction of being the %only Limerick translated into Latin. I will quote both versions; if perchance any schoolboy—or his teacher—reads this column, he will appreciate the translation— A smiling young lady of Riga Once went for a ride on a tiger; They returned from that ride With the lady inside— And the smile on the face of the tiger. The Latin version is a close translation— Puella rigensis ridebat, Quam tigris in tergo vehebat. Externa profecta, Interna revecta, Et risus cum tigre manebat.

While on this alluring topic, the origin of the. term "Limerick" is to me at least unknown. I believe Edwin Lear, of "Nonsense Book" fame, first wrote these familiar five-line verses, which he termed "nonsense rhymes"; and the late George dv Maurier. author of "Trilby," wrote many, including several French Limericks, one of which I may quote— "A Toul est un maitre d'hotel, • Hors dv centre dv ventre duquel Se projette une sorte De tiroir gui supporte La moutarde, et le poivre, etlesel." Is the origin of the name Limerick known, or is it "wrop in mystery" like the little black girl's origin in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," who "just growed" ?

For sale, one good quiet house cow, close to profit. Address, etc. The above advertisement was, quite rightly, printed under a- heading "Special Advertisements" in a Taranakr paper. It may be-all right; I am, like Lord Bobby Spencer on a famous occasion in the House of Commons, "not an agricultural laborer." But is not Taranaki carrying the cult of the cow rather far, thus to emulate the tales of old Ireland, where the pig is treated as an important member of the family? A cow in the house would certainly need to be quiet.

There are other pleasant ways of obtaining an enviable immortality without oneself being famous or great beside having a new flower or plant called by one's name. One such method of nomenclature, which must be very satisfying to the person commemorated, is to have a mountain peak or waterfall called by one's name. Many of the names in our Southern Alps are German in origin, reminiscent of a happier spirit never to recur in our time. There was some suggestion, of giving other names in place of these, but it has not been pursued, no doubt advisedly. That the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children to the third and fourth generations is in accordance with divine law; that the sins of later generations shall be visited on unoffending ancestors is not even in accordance with human law.

The country of Rhodesia is probably the most outstanding example in our days of a country being called after a man, as was Tasmania in earlier daysNearer home, Dawson Falls are, I believe, called after a postmaster at Kaponga, who was perhaps the first white man to 6ee the waterfall. If there are other waterfalls or peaks to be n # amed on our mountain, there are two 'littleclaimants, known to many readers of this journal, who might be thus remembered. To have been born at a height of some 2800 feet may be a distinction unique in New Zealand; and Joan and Patricia are names that await any future mountain christening. But the flower still appeals to me more than a mountain; a climber who first scales a peak deserves that it be named after him. A flower is different; it reminds one of the Duke of Wellington's pleasure at receiving the Knighthood of the Garter, which in distinction from his other numerous honors had, as he said, "no damned merit about it."

Speaking of flowers, the question of our national flower is still unsettled, still a "vexata quaestio." The waratah has been suggested, but is it not really an Australian native ? I do not : know if flowers ought really to he con- | sidered in terms of £s. d. Still, John | Keats' love letters and a lock of his j hair were sold at public auction, and ] people who are similarly interested" ! may like to know that the commercial j value of waratah blooms was sevenpence apiece in Hawera ten years ago. One of Shakespeare's characters has descanted on the many virtues of "if."" J Here are some clever lines with th&same motif, as musicians term it. GOOD AND CLEVER. If all the good people were clever, And all clever people were good, The world would be nicer than ever We thought that it possibly could~ I But somehow 'tis seldom or never The two hit it off as they should * The good are so harsh to the clever, The clever so rude to the good. So, friends, let it be our endeavor To make each by each understood - For few can be good like the clever. Or clever so well as the good! They were written by a Miss Wordsworth in 1890, who probably had been, reading Charles Kingsley's lines, familiar to all album-owners and their victims, beginning something likethis— Bedad, sweet maid, and let who will, begorra!